How To Use The Tempo And Expression Features In The FM8 Arp - Learn the Secrets of the FM8 Arpeggiator Part 2

In part two of this series learn how to use the tempo and expression features in the FM8 arpeggiator to create more expressive sounds.

In last week’s tutorial, Johnny went over the basic global features of the FM8 arpeggiator. As we learned in that tutorial, the FM8 arpeggiator is pretty deep and feature rich. This week he takes everything a step further.

The most important controls in any arpeggiator would be the time/tempo and the time signature as they are what will have the most influence over your arp sequence. The FM8 arpeggiator has some pretty great features that can help further shape your sound like Note Length. What this does is adds duration to the release and decay of each note in the arpeggiated sequence while keeping everything synced timing wise. It’s a great feature for keep things interesting and automating it is a great way to differentiate between say the verse pattern and chorus pattern.

Another very useful feature in FM8’s arpeggiator is the velocity switch. That allows for a great level of expressiveness when using the FM8 arpeggiator. If you have a section in the song that needs the arp sequence you’ve created, but it needs to be more subtle this one way to achieve that.

Check out the video and stay tuned for next weeks addition to this series!